baselines

Laying down the baselines this week to give myself something to reflect upon in 6 months and a year. Last week was crazy with the two day trip to Vegas for Interbike and then catching back up at work; Friday was insanity. I came home late Friday night and the boys had been enjoying the brew a little too much. I knew Kyle would be super crabby in the morning when we woke up to the alarm for the impending doom of Palomar for Jo's birthday. [awesome cycling chica]. Let's just say my thoughts were quite accurate when we woke up at 5:45am. After 15 min of complaining and indecisiveness, I made him say yes or no, because if it was no, I was going to Fiesta Island for the TCSD triathlon.

road trip to vegas - back of the van. horrible shot cause
i lost my iphone, so i have the old 3G no front camera.

Workin' - Felt founder Jim Felt talking Felt Bikes history.

probably not safe for public view. but hilarious.

Back to the club race: Packed rather quickly, skipped breakfast and had to get Kermit ready. I hadn't ridden him in quite a while and I had a bunch of stuff to do for him to be okay to ride. Left my house at 6:21am for Fiesta, with a 7am start time. Had quite the warmup and made it in time to score a sweet [yet unfair] transition spot in the bushes, register, and get the wetsuit on.

Swim went well; stayed on Kosuke's feet for maybe 250 yards. Turned the buoys alone, and swam back next to a dude and Mr. Prez [S. Banister] and apparently some dolphins. Yes dolphins deep in Mission Bay - they must have been very lost, and quite disgusted - if dolphins can feel disgust.

Bike was alright. 5 loops of blah, and getting passed by some road bikers with aerobars, which is so not awesome; can't wait to put some work in on the bike and start crushing souls again. There were the usual cheater drafting groups ["we've been switching the entire time!"]  = not cool buddy, way to set an awesome example for all the new peeps and I can't believe you are actually admitting to cheating! I do have to poke fun at one of my swim students, Mo. He passed me and asked me in his awesome foreign accent if I was "on my turd lap or fourth?" I had to crack up a bit internally, as yes, I felt like I was on my turd poo feeling lap, but as the case was I was on my fourth. Thankfully.

Headed into T2 and took a while to put on my [non] running shoes. I think a chica passed me there, and then 2 more passed me on the run. Ended up 4th and ran 8:22s.  Got an awesome blister on the side of my foot from the [non] running shoes, even with socks. Found my actual shoes in my car later that day. Running those almost 4 miles got me thinking; holy hell, I have 1 year to get ready for Tahoe, and I will be running 22.2 more miles. Daunting.

Ended up 1:16 something. There's the base, although the swim times can change, I'll be looking to improve upon my 34 min bike and 31 min run. But really what matters is in exactly 1 year from this race, I will be toeing the line at Ironman Lake Tahoe. 7:00am Pacific Time.

After the race I went for a 30 mile easy coffee stop ride with Chris and Kyle, who yes got out of bed to ride his bike, leaving at a relaxed 9:20am. We headed to Stone Brewery for dinner with Jo, since we missed her b-day ride that am, and then went out in PB and finished off the evening with a 10 mile ride on the tandem. Fun.

Parlee Love at the coffee [tea] stop

Yesterday I rode with Noko and new friend Maureen [who has ridden on the Moment ride before] in east county. They dragged me around the loop for a 2:41:21 ride time [and no breaks for this lady, since I was back of the pack as evident by the 2:43 elapsed time, waiting at a construction stop.] Those two ladies are fresh off their Vegas performance and fitness...boy was it a struggle for me; but it gave me the motivation to bounce back into it.

Since I often do TCSD club races, and ride the Great Western Loop, doing these two this week while "out of shape" has given be the base upon which I will grow and get speedy.

Ready or not, next week is approaching. 

Oh, and a quick Happy Birthday to my amazing husband. I vowed to you that I'd never slow down; so this year you better keep up!

Open cans of...

With Ironman Tahoe just over a year away, I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to get back at it again. I do have a renewed focus and excitement towards 2013 since I'm going into it with a plan, but the plan doesn't start till October 1...so I'm trying to enjoy the here and now, and not get too freaked out about the impending structure.

Structure is something I had grown accustomed to with swimming. The structure grew from the 3 months for the high school season, to adding in summer sessions in Minneapolis, extending the season to 5 months, and then college, where the 8 month season with a double taper was my life for 4 years. When the season was over, it was over. Lazy person mode set in. Exercise was a joke, and if I put my toes in the pool, it better have been after laying in the sun, tanning.

Swimming was such an on and off thing for me. I was either fully in it, or fully out. Yet knowing the season would eventually start again, it didn't matter how far I let myself go, because we always had dryland training to kick our butts back into shape. Some of my sorest moments were hobbling around the UND campus, dreading that track and football field each afternoon, and well, the days and weeks after Ironman St. George...but we'll put those memories aside for a while.

senior sioux girls on training trip in FL

In Southern California, and in the world of Pro athletes, [since don't you know, we're all pro's down here...lol] there really isn't an off season for triathlon. You can find a race every month...and if it isn't a tri, there's some half marathon that everyone's doing, or in my case, the road racing season will start back up again. So, starting Oct 1, I'll be busting my butt for 24 weeks until race day at Oceanside 70.3 - then a week [and hopefully more] to recover, and then another 24 week block until Ironman Tahoe.

Structure training for 12 months...this is new.

Where will I find the motivation to keep going? To make the training worth it? All for two out of 365 days? That sounds like craziness.

So in the next two weeks I'm working on finding the motivation. And enjoying the unstructured training while it lasts. Today was a quick ride up the coast with the Moment ride - which turned into Noko, Judd and me. A great chatty ride. This week I'm heading to Vegas on Tuesday and flying back on Wednesday night for a brief look at Interbike. And next weekend is wide open - TCSD club race, ladies ride with Moment, or a birthday party on Mt. Palomar - yeah fun! [puke my guts out!] Hey at least I get to pick my fun.

Ready to open a can of Whoop Ass on the 2013 season. Oh yeah, in the 30-34 AG - YIKES!

yes, an actual can of Whoop Ass

Fall

When I lived in Minnesota, autumn used to mean summer was ending, leaves changing, school's starting, and the days are noticeably shorter.

Now that I've been in So Cal for 5 autumns, I've almost forgotten what the leaves of fall look like, what going back to school feels like, and what the transition to winter is all about. Days getting shorter unfortunately do not change with a nicer climate. I do miss Minnesota - but not nearly enough to want to move back...sorry mom. Life in San Diego has been great; summer has been crazy busy and blogging has been lacking. I usually post a year end, but this year has had quite a few beginnings and endings, and what's a calendar and seasons to decide starts and finishes.

Summarizing summer sounds a bit like this:

I left off with the awesome race I had at SDIT, faking my way into shape. Moment was sponsoring the Carlsbad Triathlon a month later, so I snagged a free entry the day before the race (after standing on my feet all day moving the entire store to Carlsbad and back) and put together an okay race.

elusive both feet off ground pic!

My last run was SDIT and I had zero expectations. Carlsbad is a swimmers race, with a 1000 yard swim, 18 mile bike and a lovely 5k run. Although I was almost 2 min slower than last year and my run pace was slower than SDIT (and only half the distance!) I managed to get an AG win by 6 min, although I felt it was undeserving. I suppose it's about who shows up, and that's about what I did.

July and August [and mostly only September] were filled with work in preparations for the 4th annual San Diego Triathlon Classic that happened last weekend. All I can say is boy I'm glad it's over. Another mostly successful event with another sleepless evening in preparation for our biggest event of the year. It still kills me how people have the nerve to ask if I'm racing or if I raced. Um, no. The total amount of sleep the week before is right around 20 hours...I don't think I could physically race, even if I was allowed to! I hope you had fun if you participated...because that's why we do it! It sure ain't for the money.

My mom came to visit at the end of August. Sadly, Kyle was out to sea the entire time, but we had a blast in the short amount of time she was in San Diego. A zoo visit [I've lived in SD for 5 summers, and still haven't been until now!] and some time spent on the beach were the highlights.

oh yeah, i died my hair like gold medalist megan rapinoe

Managed a cove swim on Labor Day with Kyle. Such a rarity in life and it was pretty awesome. The swell was coming in and we tried to enter the caves but quickly retreated. 

floating w/ steve & frank. kyle not so much floating.

say "sharks!"

beach day at the cove? weirdos.

And... I pulled the trigger on my 2013 triathlon plans. I decided to give Oceanside a try - I've lived in CA for 5 years watching and following this race, and I have yet to toe the line of the closest Ironman branded event to where I live. I've had a lot of friends race [and with great success]. I hear it's a cold race with a hilly bike. After the heat of Panama last Jan, bring it. I swim in the ocean all winter and I'm not scared of a little chill. In fact, I'll embrace it because that's what I do...I'm Minnesotan, right?

So a couple weeks after Oceanside opened up, and I registered, a new Ironman was announced. Lake Tahoe. A full distance Ironman, new, and back in California...hmm. I know I know, I said I'd never do another one, but that was before this race was announced!! It's another first time event which I really like doing. Some people get nervous about first time events, but as a race director and a participant of a couple of first time events, I think they are the best. The volunteers are super excited, the locals aren't totally pissed off yet because they don't quite know what's going to hit them, and there aren't any expectations for participant times or any prior results to get anxious about. So, after a week of consideration after the announcement, I set my alarm and registered right when it opened [I was actually in a bike fitting at work, and cleared it with the lady ahead of time...]. So a boat load of money to the big M Dot corporation, paid for by the check I got for those stolen wheels at ITU. The race sold out in less than 24 hours. 

So just as May 1, 2010 was stuck in my head for a year, September 22, 2013 here I come. 1 year and 10 days...

Official training starts Oct 1.
24 weeks to Oceanside, 1 week rest and then 24 weeks to Tahoe; couldn't have planned it any better.